Client_News

Houston Chronicle:

Nearly three years after former Houston billionaire R. Allen Stanford's arrest, investors who lost money in an alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme still wait for resolution: a trial, restitution, some sign of justice.

"How much longer do we have to deal with this?" wonders Roxanne Short, who hopes to recover at least some of a $253,000 nest egg invested with Houston-based Stanford Financial Group. "My husband says it's a pipe dream. We're never going to get anything back. If we do, we'll be dead."

The case is scheduled for another step Tuesday, when Stanford, 61, is scheduled to appear in Houston federal court for a hearing to determine if he is competent to stand trial.

That will be the latest link in a long and complex chain that includes repeated changes in Stanford's legal representation, and a jailhouse fight that resulted in drug dependency and possible brain damage.

Stanford is to stand trial next month on charges that he financed a lavish lifestyle and made risky, speculative investments using money clients thought they were investing in certificates of deposit issued by his bank in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua.

....

Four others await trial

Defendants can have mental defects or brain injuries and still be competent to understand the proceedings against them and help in their defense, said Sorrels, who has won a case for a client judged not guilty by reason of insanity.

Philip Hilder, a Houston attorney and former federal prosecutor, noted that while drug dependency usually can be treated, the severity of Stanford's head injury could be another matter.

Philip Hilder of Hilder & Associates quoted in Houston Chronicle article

"It would have to be so severe that clearly he would be unable to assist in his own defense," Hilder said. "It's not terribly common because there's a low standard and threshold. The ability to provide assistance means you're cognizant of what is going on around you."

....

http://www.chron.com/business/article/Investors-get-nowhere-as-Stanford-case-crawls-2409875.php

© 2011 Hearst Communications Inc.